GM Reiff, he of the record plaque
collection, is shown the door by Bruce Bernard. The four-time
champ wouldn't collect #5 this year.

Mike Buccheri (left) is surrounded
by Cabbies in the Final - but that's ok because none of them
is named Bruce. Je still finished last though.

Collecting by another name ...

For the second straight year illustrious GM George "Bud"
Sauer had to cancel at the last minute and I was left holding
the substitute teacher's credentials. I guess running the real
WBC Auction makes me the logical candidate to run the Auction
event - or at least the first person to come to mind.

In a related note on Sunday night Ken Gutermuth, Jeff Mullet,
Mike Stanley and I got together to give Mike a refresher course
and some practice before the WBC got started. Ken, Jeff and I
won a game each. Stanley won zippo. More on this later.

Tuesday night rolled around and seven boards of players showed
up in a room with six tables. But we found an empty table in
a nearby room and got underway with the winners getting a pass
to the semi-finals.

Former champ David Brooks punched his ticket by outlasting
the board in an exhausted deck game. On the next table his lovely
bride Reiko had a tourney high score of $9710 to advance. 2007
laurelist John Schoose easily handled his board to advance. Mike
Buccheri bested a crew including defending champ Jon Lockwood
to make the semis. His brother, Robert Bucchari ,beat yours truly
and Bruce Monnin who scored a tourney low of $1050. Jeff Mullet
advanced handily in his game and John Shaheen bested three ladies
to make his way to the next round.

Wednesday's round rolled around and we had six more boards.
Carol Haney beat Sean McCulloch, Tom Dunning and former champ
Andy Gardner to advance. Mike Stanley proved you can teach an
old dog new tricks and won his heat while Natey Boy Hoam backed
in with the best second place finish. My chances ended at the
hands of another Bruce -- Bernard to be precise - who advanced
with my ticket. Ken Gutermuth took the measure of his table and
made it, yet again to the semis. Kevin Wojtaszczyk ended defending
champ Jon Lockwood's reign to advance. And finally, David Brooks
kept sharp and won another heat for good measure to deny someone
else a shot.

This left us with 11 winners and one runner-up to advance
with the three winners and best second going to the Final. As
always the semis were seated randomly.

In semi #1 Mike Buccheri took out his brother, Robert, Bruce
Bernard and David Brooks with a complete set of jewelry in a
quick decision.

In semi #2 Ken Gutermuth beat John Schoose, Reiko Brooks and
Kevin Wojtaszczyk quite handily with a set of rare miscellany.

In semi #3, composed of four Cabbies, Jeff Mullet also used
rare miscellany to beat Natey Boy Hoam and Carol Haney. Mike
Stanley, still keeping a low profile, backed into the Final with
the best of a bunch of low second place scores.

The Final was as long as the semis were short. Jeff Mullet
had inherited enough to win the game ($7570) but could never
get in the auction to declare even after bidding every cent he
had. Mike Stanley just kept plugging away at Jewelry and finally
pulled a fifth and declared. Would it be enough? It was. Mike
won with a total of $8150, Jeff was second at $7570, Ken Gutermuth
third at $5140 and Mike Buccheri was 4th with $4330. Stanley
was all smiles. Ken and Jeff were bitching at each other for
giving such good lessons. I just laughed my ass off!

Moral of the story -- find Ken and Jeff early next year and
lose to them, badly, in some practice games and you too can win
this event next year!!!!!